You find them in movies, television, comics and novels. But are there “inside references” in the pulps?
You know what I mean: an allusion to names, people or events that the average reader may not get, but those on the “inside” pick up on.
While recently reading Captain Future and the Space Emperor, I came across a character named Kenneth Lester. That got me wondering…
The Space Emperor, the first in the Captain Future series, was published in 1939. The captain is clearly a literary descendant of Doc Savage: Raised scientifically to combat evil, seeks adventure, is a master of every scientific field, chums around with a pair of bickering associates who are really best friends, etc. So was “Kenneth Lester” a sly reference to the author of Doc Savage, a blend of the names Kenneth Robeson and Lester Dent.
Could it be that author Edmond Hamilton slipped this name into the story as an acknowledgement of the influence of Doc on the captain? If that’s the case, I wonder how many other “inside” references appear in pulp stories that most of us don’t realize?
– William
